What else can we do besides signing the petition?

My suggestion is to do a Million Woman March in Washington, DC to Fight Against waiting for Mammograms if this gets passed. We can Rally together the same way we do with Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Our voices will get heard. We can let go Pink Balloons and Fling Pink Bras!!

I do think we should contact our Senators and Representatives.

I would like to sincerely, humbly suggest that we women who have had BC try to unite politically on this one issue...  Mammograms are essential and access should be expanded, not reduced!   We don't have to agree on HOW the access will be paid for, but we can all agree that these new guidelines are insane! 

(This stupid Task Force has been working on these recommendations for 7 years, and its members were appointed a while ago!  The studies were completed by December 2008 and the paper submitted for publication well before the current health care debate going on in Congress...  Many people who support an expanded public health care option ALSO are outraged by these guidelines!  I personally think it would be very strong if we showed a unity of opinion among women on the "right" and "left" on the need for mammograms!)

I believe one of the council woman in my jurisdiction is a Cancer survivor. I have to do some searching.

I am for the march on Washington, they have done a 'Million Men's march', why not a 'Breast Cancer march'. I am working on composing a strong worded email to my congressman and senators. I have their email addresses in my contact list. I may even include the link to Dr Marisa Weiss's point of view on this proposed change.

Sheila

I like the idea of flinging pink bras I don't do breast cancer walks & stuff, but I would totally go to one to fight for mammos, especially for the young women, I was only 33. Right now, besides being angry, I'm not sure there's much we can do RIGHT AWAY. Is this a sure thing or are they talking about changing it? I know most people will hear about this over the next few days/weeks, I posted it to my facebook telling people to NOT LISTEN to those guidelines, but LISTEN TO THEIR BODIES, be their own health advocates and to keep doing the self breast exams. I'm still so mad and so angry over this! And it's not like I'm enjoying the mammos!

I think contacting state and federal reps is a good start.  Women who belong to a union should contact their union reps--huge lobbying power--the media should be flooded, BUT know where this came from and don't confuse it with the health insurance bill, or the importance of both will be diluted.  

To find your representative at the federal level, see below 

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml 

http://www.senate.gov/ 

Many states have a program like this one http://www.oregon.gov/DHS/ph/bcc/index.shtml 

I'm sure these groups will be active, try Googling your state and see if you can connect with them. 

Good morning America has a place to put up a video on You Tube(if you know how) to say what you are thannkful for; I suggest you say you are thankful for early diagnosis per yearly mammos beginning at age 40.

Or--you can do as I, a computer challenged gal, did: send the same comment to them in a box at the lower left hand part.  You do have to join and leave your email addy.  Only took a second or two to join---you can always block them if/when they contact you.

We must march,  we must wear t-shirts "I am the one" - for the one woman they are willing to sacrifice to save money. . . . . they must, must see us in mass to know what they are really recommending. 

Is there a larger petition somewhere beyond BC.org ? My family and friends want to sign too !!!!!

You Go Girl !!!!!!!!!!

How thoughtful of you, you even included the commas!  thanks for making it so easy

Very well done!!

I believe we should get organized / be ready to do something.  Not only in Washington though b/c some may not be able to travel.  We should do something nationwide in the big cities.  Maybe we should dress up as ghosts because they don't seem to see or hear us.  Also b/c we could be dead if we hadn't caught our cancers early enough.  Are we faceless to them?  Maybe we should carry posters of who does see and hear us (our families, friends, etc).  Maybe our hands need to be in handcuffs because to use them for BSE is of no value according to them!!! 

We also need to find a new leader of the research movement.  The "army" needs a new general.  Please, I soooooo want to see someone else gather us for research.  I want to contribute to research but not through someone who agrees with these guidelines.

Something else we can do: sign a petition SUPPORTING The "EARLY ACT", a bill advocating early screenings and self exam......and this has apparently been around for a while.

For information about the EARLY ACT: http://earlyactawareness.org/

 "Authored by Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) and sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), "Young Women's Breast Health Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act of 2009'' or ‘‘EARLY Act". would direct the Centers for Disease Control to develop and implement a national education campaign about the threat breast cancer poses to young adult women. The EARLY ACT would also create a national education campaign for healthcare professionals and create materials to help patients address long-term effects and challenges associated with breast cancer."

For the petition: http://komenpolicy.org/campaign/alert_early_act?rk=K7c1wxKaovtHW .fill in the blanks and hit send, so SUPER EASY

For the contrarian and scary view, that the act "would do more harm than good" for such stellar reasons as  "In addition to making young women more aware (and undoubtedly more worried) about breast cancer" and "....breast self-examinations to achieve "early detection of breast cancer among young women." But there is no credible scientific evidence that this would reduce breast cancer deaths": http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/31/opinion/oe-woloshin31?pg=2

Please note: this article came out July 31, 2009 so apparently the New Mammography Guidelines have been brewing for a while; in my opinion, this makes them all the more dangerous.

A group of Washington DC based bc survivors and advocates are staging a protest at USPSTF offices in Gaithersburg MD on Monday 11/12 from 8am - 5:30pm.   See my post "Protest of USPSTF mammogram recommendations" in this forum for details or reply here if you can't locate it.  Any and all are welcome to join us - the bigger the group, the stronger the message we send.  Note: we're just a group of outraged individuals and are not associated with any organization.   Thnx!